Ljubljana - The first shipment of 36,000 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US company Novavax arrived in Slovenia on Tuesday and will be available at vaccination centres as of Thursday, according to a posting on the website of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

The Nuvaxovid vaccine is registered for those over 18 years old. It requires two doses which should be administered within a three-week period, but is not registered for a booster shot.

Slovenian authorities hope it could generate more interest in coronavirus vaccination among the sceptics because it is based on a technology that has been used for quite some time.

Novavax is a protein subunit vaccine, meaning that it contains parts of the proteins unique to the virus.

This type of vaccines has been used for several years and has a good safety record, NIJZ says.

The Novavax vaccine is relatively easy to manufacture and easy to keep for several months at normal refrigerator temperature.

The group of experts advising the Slovenian government on coronavirus immunisation recommended it at its session on 16 February.

This is the fifth coronavirus vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and was green-lighted by the European Commission on 20 December.

Novavax's phase 3 trial has shown that its overall efficacy is 90% and side effects are relatively mild or moderate.